Jenny Jones has been a Green Party member of the London Assembly since 2000, is a former Deputy Mayor of London and sits in the House of Lords as Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb. She's a former archaeologist and a Eurosceptic.

Tory supporters: do you realise that fracking is messier and nastier than wind turbines?

Fracking suddenly appeared as an issue in the UK in 2013 and has divided the Left and the Right as much as the issue of nationalisation. But it’s clearly not an ideological topic and I’m getting a bit worried that Conservatives in particular may not be getting enough information about the downside of this technology.

On a recent visit to Dorset where there are lots of fracking permissions being granted, as well as a hefty Conservative vote, I was told by anti-fracking campaigners that local newspapers ignore the fracking debate. To check this assertion I telephoned the Bournemouth Daily Echo and although I was (I thought) very polite, I got an abusive earful. In a later email, the Editor later brushed off my concerns, which oddly didn’t reassure me at all.

So, if you do ever get asked to consider a fracking rig near your home it’s worth considering a few of the implications.

Fracking is a messy process. It’s far nastier than those wind turbines supposedly ruining country views and killing precious birds. If you are unlucky enough to live in an area rich in shale gas, and the Government gets its way, then you’re likely to see the countryside near your home carved up like a turkey as fracking wells tend to proliferate once the fracking process is under way. On top of the visual risks it might be worth your considering reports from the USA which suggest that fracking can deplete and contaminate precious water supplies and cause mayhem on the roads near your home with huge trucks endlessly passing by.

Maybe you’re worried about the implications that fracking could have on your community but you’re willing to accept it for the "greater good" in bringing down bills? You might want to think again.

Despite what Government Ministers claim, the experts at Deutsche Bank, Chatham House, and Ofgem all predict that shale gas extraction will not bring down fuel bills. So fracking won’t help the 1.5 million children growing up in cold homes in the UK. Add to this the fact that 60 to 80 per cent of known fossil-fuel reserves must remain in the ground if we are to have any chance of avoiding dangerous climate change, and you might have a glimmer of the start of some vague qualms?

We Greens want an energy policy that serves the common good, not just the interests of fossil fuel companies. I hope that residents in shale gas areas tell the Government they want more information, then show them how they feel at the ballot box.